unexpected guest

Yes, that's right. We have an unexpected (and temporary) yard guest.

It's a possum!

It's got the dogs in a tizzy and Callie even got one of it's babies.

Kevin says I'm not allowed to say it's cute... 

but it kinda is :)



cadbury egg cupcakes

I made these very yummy cadbury egg filled cupcakes for Easter.

I know, I know, Easter was two weeks ago now - but I've been busy!

 

These cupcakes have a mini cadbury creme egg inside a chocolate cupake topped with vanilla buttercream. YUM!

 

 

These cupcakes have a mini caramel cadburry egg in a chocolate cupcake with caramel buttercream. YUM again!

 

 

 

These cupcakes are easy. All you have to do is freeze the mini cadburry eggs and add them to your cupcake pans filled with batter just before baking! Told you it was easy!

Now you just have to wait a year until you can find mini cadburry eggs in stock at the grocery store again. Interesting note, my friend Sarah is from England and she says they have cadburry eggs in the store all year long!

pillows for klarisa

I have a friend who is my pinterest soul-mate. That sounds pretty intense, but basically, everything Klarisa pins I want to pin... and do and make. That is not meant to be creepy and I could have just said "Klarisa has good taste", but I hardly feel like that covers the depth of my appreciation for her hunting out the good stuff or the speed with which I click repin. Haha!

To show my appreciation, I made 3 pillows for Klarisa that we had both pinned close to the beginning of our pinning days. 

The first (and my favorite) is this cute little bird pillow found via pinterest, but origionally from this cool etsy shop. This is my version:

Next is this pretty ruffle flower pillow.

(I do not have a direct link for this pillow. I read & combined several tuturials found via pinterest - my DIY instructions are below)

Finally, I made a kite pillow in the same style as the bird pillow and inspired from the same etsy shop

I love how cute they all are!

Here's my steps for making the purple flower pillow - it's so easy and fun I feel guilty for not making letting Klarisa do it herself!

I cut several 2" strips of stretchy soft fabric (like jersey material, but I used the less expensive version)

I believe I ended us using 5 strips, but how much you need/use depends on the size of your pillow.

Then I sewed down the middle of the strips of fabric on my largest stitch setting to create a "ruffled" strip.

At frist I sewed my strips together, but then I found it was easier to work with them if I had somewhat shorter pieces and it did not change the end results/look - so I would skip that step next time.

Next I used a large kitchen bowl as a circle pattern.

And cut a circle out of felt for my flower base.

It's time for flower asembly!

Fold the ruffled strips in half, so that the stitching is at the base.

and start hot gluing. Apply the glue to the felt circle and then press the strips of folded fabric (at the base where the stitching is) to the felt.

I started at the center of my circle, but saw tutorials that started from the outside instead.

I'll have to try that next, and give an update if I find one way is easier than the other.

Sorry I didn't take good pictures during the glue stage, but I had to keep moving!

Here I am holding back the previous layer of ruffles so I can glue the next layer a little closer for a fuller look.

To finish the pillow, I just trimmed the felt as close as possible and glued it to a pillow front. I used hot glue for this step and immediately put a heavy book on the glued flower to help is set flat.

Isn't is just so pretty and ruffly?!?!

And here is another bird pillow shot just b/d it's still my favorite!

shared at whipperberry.com

it smells like coffee around here

I read on pinterest that if you burn tea candles in coffe beans it smells like freshly roasted coffe.

We don't drink lots of coffee around our house, but we love the smell so this was a must try!

It works great! I got french vanilla beans and it's a very nice comforting smell!

Another project in my pinterest

project resolution challenge!

(see here)